HAVANA, Aug 11 (PL)  July 2015 was the third warmest month in Cuba since 1951, after registering an average temperature of 28.2 degrees Celsius, above 0.7 the historical average for the seventh month of the year, Granma newspaper reported today.

According to the Climate Center at the Meteorology Institute, the values of maximum and minimum monthly average were 33.1 and 23.3 degrees, exceeding the usual figures 0.5 and 0.7, respectively, the daily stated.

About 11 maximum temperature records were set in July, with the highest reports of 38.2 degrees, in Contramaestre, Santiago de Cuba, on July 29.

The Casablanca weather station in Havana had 20 days with conditions of intense heat, a figure above the historical average of the month, which is 17.

Similarly, the El Niño-Southern Oscillation phenomenon, named ENOS, continued its development by increasing the anomalies of the sea suface temperature in the equatorial Pacific Ocean up to two degrees Celsius.

The intensification of that complex process of ocean-atmosphere interaction will continue until late 2015 and early 2016, and may reach the category of strong between August and October, something that has not happened since the 1997-1998 period, according to forecast models.